Eligibility Criteria

Eligible student projects may be new or existing, team-based or individual, and may span the areas of environmentally-oriented research, storytelling, community engagement, campus sustainability, green engineering, local and national level climate policy, and any other climate-based project area. Six projects were awarded this round, from a total of $30,000 in available funding. Students may also opt into independent study credit to compensate for their work on their projects. Following the award decision, faculty-student pairing will be facilitated (but not directly matched) through the Faculty-Student Networking Workshop and 1-on-1 support with The Environmental Collaboratory. Faculty advisors are required for initially accepted student projects to receive funding and are responsible for handling fund through their respective department. Students and faculty will participate in a series of workshops and events to further project efforts, including the Faculty-Student Networking Workshop and Brainstorming, the Community Partnerships Workshop and Brainstorming, the 6-month Progress and Project Challenges Discussion Meeting, and the Annual TEC Climate Hub Student Project Fund Poster Summit. The Community Partnerships Workshop and Brainstorming will be a joint brainstorming and discussion on potential partnerships within and outside of Drexel, with a focus on transdisciplinary connections as well as steps to include diverse and local community perspectives and feedback.

To ensure selected projects are aligned with student interest, a blind vote involving applicants (one per project) was heavily considered in final selections, with deviations due to major budget justification or feasibility issues. Students were asked to read through a summary of each project provided by applicants and rank their top three choices based on what they would like for the university to support and the selection criteria, with justifications for their first choice.